'I'm a survivor,' girl sexually abused from the age of four by elderly man tells Cork court

A teenager described how sexual abuse from the age of six by an elderly father figure had changed her life irrevocably and now the 84-year-old man has been jailed for five years for the crimes which he denied at a trial by judge and jury.

The teenager spoke at Cork Circuit Criminal Court of how her life had been changed irrevocably by the abuse she had suffered at the hands of the defendant who was in a relationship with her mother.

She said the abuse had changed her in ways she never expected or deserved, and that the person she was before the abuse was not the same person she is today. 

She said in her victim impact statement that now she lives with constant fear and anxiety that she never experienced before.

However, the injured party, who is now in her mid-teens, said that while she will carry the scar of the accused’s actions in her mind for the rest of her life, she will not allow them to define who she is and that she hopes to move on with her life. 

She said she is not a victim but a survivor.

There is a prohibition on identification of the defendant in order to protect the identity of the injured party. He was found guilty by a jury on 16 counts of sexually assaulting the girl between June 2015 and June 2019 while minding her at the family home.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Helen Boyle said the abuse involved the man touching the girl’s private parts inside her clothing but outside her underwear two or three times a week between 2015 and 2019 when the girl was between six and nine years of age.

The 84-year-old told the child not to tell anyone what he was doing to her and he used to buy her treats. Eventually in 2019 she told her mother on a family holiday and following this disclosure, Tusla were notified and a garda investigation commenced.

Sentencing

The defendant had no previous convictions and had not come to garda attention since the abuse. Judge Boyle said the defendant showed no understating of the gravity of the offending, particularly the young age of his victim.

Aggravating factors included the breach of trust given and the prolonged nature of the abuse.

Defence barrister, Elaine Audley, said the accused had multiple health issues and the judge said she fully accepted that the accused was not in good health.

She said that she believed that the offending merited a headline sentence of nine years but taking into account the man’s poor health she would reduce the sentence to one of seven years and suspend the final two years. 

The sentence was backdated to November 26, 2025, when the accused first went into custody following his conviction by the jury. Judge Boyle directed the defendant to undergo the Safer Lives programme for sex offenders on his release from custody.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.